New Fashion Trend Displays LEDs, Electronic Jewelry

More and more fashion companies are integrating technology into their new clothing designs.

Take Moon Berlin, a German fashion label of the company Franken & Bruns, which has started taking online orders for chiffon dresses accessorized with white LEDs beneath the sheer fabric.

The LEDs illuminate softly when the dress is first worn, and shine more intensely as the wearer moves within it.

Other popular tech-based attire and accessories include fiber-optic brooches and corsages, as well as LED-powered dinner jackets and clutch pocketbooks. (Source: nashna.com)

Tech Kits Turn Fashion Consumer into Fashion Creator

Some companies are even letting consumers experiment with the emergent technology.

Adafruit Industries, a New York-based company, will soon offer kits and components with a small, wearable microprocessor called "Flora," controlling LEDs and other electronic adornments.

The wearer literally determines how the light patterns will look and how intensely these LEDs will illuminate.

Still, the addition of technology to fashion is not done for aesthetics alone. One Flora kit, designed for a handbag, is rumored to offer a GPS sensor linked to an LED display.

The idea is to eliminate the need to pull out a smartphone to check for directions. The handbag itself "will have a big arrow to tell you which direction to go," according to Limor Fried, founder of Adafruit. (Source: nytimes.com)

Amazingly, the kit is expected to sell for less than $100 (not including the cost of the handbag).

Jacket Displays Customizable Video

Another future kit, also based on Flora, will create video displays on the back of a jacket. Early prototypes will likely be limited to low-resolution, but will be "recognizable as video" nevertheless.

The addition of technology to clothing could also be beneficial for keeping the wearer safe. Fried went on to explain the benefits of a LED-based T-shirt designed for joggers.

It can glow red or orange when the air quality is poor, and use a Bluetooth connection to relay twitter messages to other joggers, for example.

The possibilities are seemingly endless. With the emergence of new companies already putting these innovative ideas into practice, a fashion / technology hybrid society is literally closer than ever before.